Free Fluoro Night Dive at BHP Jetty

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Wednesday 4th September 2013 @ 7pm

Fluoro-Diving – A Cool Way of Seeing Science – A unique Diving Dimension. Join us on an exploration of this cool form on diving during the Underwater Festival. Meet us at BHP Jetty on Wednesday 4 September @ 7pm. BHP Jetty is located at the end of Riseley Road, Kwinana and we’ll gear up in the carpark and show you how to use the gear you’ll be using. Gear is limited – so make sure you let us know you’ll be there by contacting us.

Experience a new dimension in diving so new that more people have seen Earth from space than have seen corals in this light! Fish suddenly speak and coral communicate through fluoresecence. You’d never believe the amount of life that glows – it casts our familiar dive sites into a whole new dimension.

Did you know a human has just three colour channels and binocular vision, whereas a mantis shrimp has twelve and trinocular vision!?…

Not to be confused with phosphorescence, or bio-luminescence, Fluorescence is the absorption of one wavelength of light (or colour) and the re-emission of another, totally different wavelength of light (or colour). A fluorescent object under white light reveals its true colour. But under near UV light, it absorbs the blue and re-emits a fluorescent colour, transforming the blue into a brightly glowing, totally different colour.

Underwater, marine animals that fluoresce have the ability to convert one colour into an entirely different colour!

The true reason for fluorescence in corals remains unclear today, but the reason for fluorescence in more complex creatures is completely obscure. The subject of fluorescence extends all boundaries in understanding and even now remains as controversial in the science community as it is fascinating.